Helpful Advice Needed

I have a good friend that lost his job 5 months ago. He is still unemployed and having a hard time finding work. He has gone on several interviews so at least he is trying. The problem is he has several bills that cannot be paid due to his unemployment. What can he tell these creditors so that they will stop calling? Should he write a certified letter explaining his situation? Please give some advice because I want to help out as much as I can. I am paying some of his small bills, but the larger ones I cannot pay.

They can call all they want, but calling still won’t get the bills paid. So in essence they are wasting their time calling. I am sure there is something he can do. No one should be harassed by the phone constantly even if they are behind on bills. Alot of these creditors think that consumers don’t know laws, but lots of us do. Alot of these creditors do illegal things to collect that are downright rude. I am telling him to document every call and who he spoke with and also tell them that he is taping the conversations. I am going to tell him to take everyone’s advice here and send a certified letter to them. All of us will hit hard times at some point, even the rude creditors that call. No one’s job is guaranteed………

I am glad that you got your CC company to work with you. That’s the way things should be handled. But when you have already tried that and they still keep calling, thats when you have to take matters a little further. I will help my friend all I can and it pains me to see him going through this. That’s why I am on this group to find out what I can do and I have seen lots of great advice. I have seen several people on this forum that got the creditors to stop calling, so it is possible……..

I’m so sorry about your friends situation. We have been in the same situation for a year now. We only pay the necessities (home, utilities, food,basic phone line and transportation) until we can do more. It’s awfully hard to pay for something when you have no job. Is he trying for any state assistance for food or anything? We hated to do that but we can now eat and not worry about that expense until mt first paycheck.

As far as the phone calls, I’m looking for the same information. We ended up turning the phone off and reconnecting with a new one.

Drastic…isn’t it? But we were getting no help from the creditors. No matter what we told them, they just kept harrassing us. I’m not telling you to do that, we felt like that was our only option.

There’s nothing worse than getting 40 phone calls in a day and not one of them being a potential employer, but bill collectors. I know he’s frustrated but it will get better.